Maddeningly inscrutable people! What could they possibly be thinking?
Old "Blueprint" citation said 100m Chinese tourists by 2020. Chart in this FT piece showed 50m by 2010, so right on target.
The Chinese have something to learn on touring: their tendency, just like when they emigrate, is to stay highly enclaved (one Balinese guide: "The problem we have is they come on package tours with their own guides, stay in their own hotels, and east in their own restaurants.")
Training-wheels, perhaps, for now, but getting them to branch out will be natural enough over time: they'll learn more foreign languages, and more of us will learn Chinese.
It is a common theme of great science fiction that someday, we'll all speak some Mandarin.